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Friday, August 26, 2011

I googled for a picture of a "hot sun" and came across this one. I thought it was a little easier on the eyes than a picture of the glaring, eye squinting sun we have had endlessly here.

It implies water.

We don't have any.

We haven't had a good any rain in months and are in a horrible drought. We get teased every once in a while with some thunder and sprinkles but that's about the extent of it.

This past weekend Tom and I went to visit my ex boss, Dr. M-R for his 75th birthday. He has a home on Cedar Creek Lake in Mabank. Here is a view from his back porch.

The lake is 5ft below what it should be. Normally the water fills up the front dock.

Here is a close up of his boat dock. They can't put their boat in the water because it's too shallow.

We are probably going to break the all time record of 100+ degree days we have ever had in one really long hot summer. So far we have had

60 days 100 or over!

We've been breaking all kinds of heat records down here. "Highest Highs" and my favorite "Highest Lows". That's when it's like 90 degrees at 6 am when I'm on my way to work with the air conditioner on MAX. It is not natural! Needless to say we're all kind of cranky.

FYI

Today is "National Dog Day". I don't have one. Hug your dog for me!

Today in History (1920)

The 19th amendment to the constitution was passed giving women the right to vote.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

We are getting some sprinkles here in Texas this morning. It's been months since we have had rain. I'm hoping for a downpour. My Vinca are happy.

I'm working on my blog. It will look like I've put a new post on when in fact it's just piddly little changes I'm making here and there on my web page. This will probably go on for a while given the fact that I am not very good at web design. My biggest challenge is my header. I want it really simple. This one is temporary. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment. If you have a blog send me the link. I would love to see it.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

We are officially in 2nd place now with the most consecutive days over 100 degrees. I think it's 36 days in a row now but if I'm wrong the heat is getting to my head. The record is 42 days back in 1980 and from the looks of the long range forecast we're going to break that record. We've been threatened with rolling black outs by the electric company. They are actually pulling electricity from Mexico to help with the overload here. That boggles my mind. How do they do that?

The worst part is we have had NO RAIN! All of Texas is in a severe drought. I don't travel outside of the metroplex but I hear that it's a very sad sight. Burnt cornfields, grapes that have turned into raisins, dried up ponds and lakes. They even found a part of the shuttle Columbia in a lake in Nacogdoches because the water level had dropped down so low. I remember that morning well. I heard the explosion, actually two. It woke me up. A horrible horrible tragedy.

Doesn't that look like something out of "The Day The Earth Stood Still"? The original one with Michael Rennie not the remake with Keanu Reeves (even though Keanu is by far the better looking alien).

When the lakes get low the tap water tastes vile! We always say it's because the lakes turn over in the summer. Can you picture that? Ha. It's actually because of an overgrowth of algae. I guess that's why we say the lakes turn over. I find myself buying bottle water every time I make a trip to the store. We even use it for coffee. Thank you Ozarka!

It's starting to look like fall. The poor trees are really suffering.

Our yard is patchy and the ground is pulling away from the foundation in areas. "Not good".

I've managed to keep some flowers alive. I've grouped them all together on the patio waiting for this heat wave to be over. The geranium given to me by a dear friend on my birthday, is not so good. (I'm not giving up on it yet Heidi)!

Tom has been doing some evening hand watering on the dry spots. Notice he is watering the neighbors yard in this picture. I love this man.

All of North Texas is on watering restrictions. Our area is only allowed to water 2 days a week before 10 AM and after 6 PM. Tom and I (it took team effort) reset the sprinkler system to conform to the times and I think it will work better because we can do some deep watering at night. It will be much better for the yard and foundation.

Yesterday early morning the sprinklers were running on the golf course. Do you see the rainbows?